202 The Wilson Bulletin, No. T2-T3. 



Mr. Woodruff wrote the aliove lin the fall of lOOG and we see that 

 at that time the Cardinal was looked upon as by no means a com- 

 mon species. lias it increased about here durinii the past four 

 years? If not it seems remarkable that I should have wakled into 

 their hiding place the first lung. Their name ajjpears upon the 

 first list of Summer Birds that I made in Illinois I And I, a 

 stranger in the Chicago Area, thought that I had seen a "Common" 

 bird ! 



I was following the bank of the Desplaines River at River Forest, 

 Illinois, when I heard a Cardinal whistle. I straightway entered 

 his name upon my list and passed on : without so much as a look 

 at him. Back in the Delaware Valley he had ever been a familiar 

 feature in my landscape — winter and summer — and I failed to rec- 

 ognize in that old fdiiiiliar chirp the chirp of a f(irr bird. Perhaps 

 these are the same River Forest Cardinals that Imilt the nest re- 

 ferred to l)y Mr. Woodruff, above? 



However that may be I found the Cardinals there on June li», 

 ]n]0, and saw them again on Jiuie 24, and they were still about 

 the same woodland on October HO. 1910. It was a novel experience 

 to meet this old l»ird friend in a new field and discover that he 

 had risen from the rank of commonplace to hold the exalted po- 

 sition of a rarity. Chreswell J. Hunt. 



Migration Notks from Northern New Jersey. — Last winter was 

 notable for Its great scarcity of bird-life. Man.v of our permanent 

 residents were much scarcer than usual, or entirely missing and 

 at the same time, northern I)irds were equally hard to find. 



The only northern s^pecies that I saw more frequentl.v than usual 

 was the Northern Shrike. Perhaps that may, in a measure, ac- 

 count for the scarcity of some of the smaller birds. 



The ferocity of the Itird can lie illustiated by an incident I wit- 

 nessed on March 12 of this ,vear. Some Rol)ins were picking worms 

 in a bush-grown field when I noticed that something was alarming 

 them. The.v gave their alarm-call and flew up into the bushes. The 

 cause of this disturbance was a Shrike that had taken his station 

 in a tree and was evidently looking for a meal. I did not suppose 

 that he would attack a bird of his own size, Init the contrary was 

 the case, for when a Robin flew out of a bush the Shrike was after 

 him and actually struck at him, though the Robin escaped by fl.v- 

 ing into some thick bushes. 



It was my pleasiu'e, during the past winter, to record two very 

 unusual occurrences — a Brown Thrasher seen on , January 2, and 

 again on February 4, and a Red-winged Blackbird on January 28. 



The warm weather of early March brought Bluebirds, Robins, 

 Grackles and Red-wings in lumsual numbers. It also hastened the 



